EDITORIAL: Scandals show familiar abuse of power

By Enterprise editorial staff

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, May 19, 2013

Barack Obama is about as different from Richard Nixon as possible as both a person and president, but last week their two images seemed to merge. The nasty spate of scandals that erupted in Washington would not have been out of place in the pre-Watergate 1970s.

The Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative or Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status. The administration also obtained secret subpoenas for the phone records of Associated Press reporters to track down a leak about a plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner.

There's no way to spin or soften either issue. The IRS was used to punish Obama's political foes - in the heart of his re-election campaign. The phone subpoenas were disturbingly vast and blatantly wrong.

In both cases, the president's appointees clearly abused their power and undermined basic rights that all citizens should enjoy.

These scandals have even cast doubt on the president's account of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11. At first it seemed that Republicans might be taking a partisan position, but who knows now? It's hard to have much confidence in what the White House says.

President Obama owes the American people an apology for what happened on his watch. More importantly, he must take firm action to ensure that something like this never happens again.

Voters deserve a high standard of ethical behavior from their elected officials. The highest office-holder in the land has failed to meet that standard, and it is unacceptable. If Barack Obama doesn't get that, his second term is doomed after it has barely begun.